MATAMP - GUITARIST MAGAZINE Issue No. 235 March 2003

MATAMP V28 Valve Amplifier
ORIGIN: UK
TYPE: All valve single channel head with valve reverb and valve rectifier.
OUTPUT: Nominal 28 watts with 6V6 power valves as standard.
VALVES: 3 ECC83, 1 EL84, 4 6V6, 1 GZ34
DIMENSIONS: 650mm (w) x 240mm (d) x 240mm (h)
WEIGHT: (Kg/lb): 18/39

The UK has gained ground in the custom amplifier market over the past few years, but America is still king - or so we thought. With many boutique amps coming from the USA, it may come as a surprise to learn that the home of one of America's most revered amp builders isn't in a sunny Californian suburb, but a converted mill in the village of Meltham, West Yorkshire, England, set in some of the most stunning countryside the UK has to offer. This is the home of Matamp - one of our oldest marques and yet one of the least well known.

The Matamp story goes all the way back to the beginning of rock'n'roll: Mat Mathias was evacuated from Germany to the UK as a child during WWII - his first job was as a cinema projectionist and it was probably this which inspired his interest in electronics. With a post-war grant from the German government Mat started his own company, initially working from a garden shed, with the self-taught ability to fix almost anything electronic quickly earning him the nickname 'The Radio Doctor'. Continued success led to Radiocraft (Huddersfield) moving to larger premises in King Street and becoming a limited company in 1958. Mat's love of music also led him to build a recording studio used by many local artists and groups: with almost every contemporary guitarist using Vox amplification, a search for alternative sounds prompted Mat to design his own circuit, and in 1963 after many one-off prototypes the first production model was the Matamp Series 2000 - an amplifier with its own special place in British popular music history, and arguably just as significant as Marshall's 1962 'Blues breaker' or Vox's AC30. Why? Well, the next time you hear a recording of 'Albatross' (the haunting instrumental which took Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac to No 1 in the charts and world fame in 1969), listen carefully - the guitar is that famous sunburst Les Paul standard, and the amp making it sound so rich and warm is a Series 2000, used with a Matamp 'piggyback' valve reverb unit.

In the late sixties, a mutual contact introduced Mat to Clifford Cooper who owned a music shop called "Orange" in London's Old Compton Road and the two went into partnership, with Cooper distributing MATAMP in the south of England. First in black and later in bright orange vinyl, the Matamp was instantly recognisable and its rich sound and rugged durability ensured a rapid rise in popularity. The 20-watt Series 2000 was a key element of Peter Green's tone on many early recordings, however when Fleetwood Mac embarked on their first USA tour a more powerful design was needed to cope with the venues they were booked into. With little advance notice Mat designed and built several 100 watt heads using two KT88 power valves and two valve rectifiers, and travelled with Fleetwood Mac, to be on hand if any of his amps needed attention. The tour was a huge success - Matamp soon changed from aluminium to steel chassis to meet increased demand, and later the output doubled again to 200 watts using four KT88's and solid-state rectifiers. Jimmy Page used one of these legendary Matamp 200 watt heads, while Matamp's pro audio reputation was ensured when the BBC ordered several of the slave versions to power the Radio 1 road show. By now, everyone who could afford one was using a Matamp - at one point, they reportedly even outsold Marshall two to one. With a healthy order book and many bands (from dual-lead harmonists Wishbone Ash to the Osmond’s) relying on the distinctive Matamp tone, not to mention pubs and clubs throughout the country ordering their disco and PA equipment, the future looked bright - however a series of disagreements ended with the dissolution of the Cooper-Mathias partnership. Mat returned to using the MATAMP brand, while Cooper continued producing backline renamed as "Orange -Voice of the World". From such a promising start, the next few years saw a decline - with his health failing, Mathias sadly died in 1989 and left the company to his sons, who eventually decided to concentrate on other business interests and passed the baton over to Jeff Lewis - a long-time associate of Mat's.

Today, much of Matamp's custom business is with the USA, where the brand's heritage continues to inspire a devotion bordering on the fanatical - used amps are rare, often changing hands for far more than the original price. Part of the long journey back has been a total reorganisation of the amp range: Matamp's new custom service lets customers choose from a range of preamps, output stages and head/combo cabinets, all assembled and tweaked to perfection by a small but highly experienced team of artisans. From classic hi-fi low gain to ultra-modern high gain, there's a sound and feature for every player, and a cabinet style for every taste. We were tempted enough to put in an order of our own, and took the opportunity to see the amp and cab assembled for us over a weekend - something that any Matamp customer can do.

Walking through the concealed entrance into Matamp's converted mill workshop is like taking a trip back into the past - there's no reception area, and you're immediately surrounded by the sights, sounds and smells of a small but very busy manufacturing operation which is probably not much different from how it was thirty years ago. The workshop covers three floors: cabinets are cut and fabricated on the ground floor, the electronics assembly and covering takes place on the first floor, and above this is an office and a small audition room. Everywhere you look there's a wealth of memorabilia and gadgets that anyone with a passing interest in audio electronics would happily sell a relative for. A picture of Mat with Mick Fleetwood takes pride of place in the office, which is also home to the Matamp Registry - a detailed archive stretching back nearly fifty years, with chassis numbers and test measurements for every item that Matamp have sold. Against some entries, customer details like 'Wishbone Ash', 'Emperor Rosko' or 'BBC' are added in Matt's own handwriting. Despite the busy work environment with a telephone almost constantly ringing, the welcome is warm and the atmosphere very relaxed. Once you're in and settled with a mug of coffee, the first thing to do is decide on the circuit - there's a wide range of single or dual channel preamps (some including reverb and/or tremelo), and an equally wide range of power stages from 20 to 120 watts. You make your initial choice by playing through one of two dozen or so 'factory masters’, which are held on a rack in the electronics workshop, ready for immediate audition. Following this, you can talk over any modifications you might need - altering tone or gain controls to suit personal taste is all part of the service. Then work starts on assembling the chassis and circuitry - the internals are point-to-point hand wired on special patent-applied-for turret boards, which have PCB tracks in the base. " It's a system that gives us the consistency of PCB construction with the reliability of point-to-point" said Dave Green, Matamp's design engineer: " We've repaired many old Hiwatts, and noticed the small link wires underneath their conventional turret boards were often broken. Changing the wires to PCB tracks prevents that, and makes assembly much simpler." Several boards go into a welded stainless steel chassis - the components and construction standard are absolutely top-notch, and owe much to Matamp's hi-fi heritage. While the chassis is being assembled and tested, it's time to consider the woodwork: there's a wide range of combo and head/cabinet designs and a bewildering assortment of vinyl and speaker cloth. Cabinets are made from top-grade birch ply: "We use a CNC machine for production runs" explained Jeff, " but for one-offs it's quicker to make by hand - we have jigs for just about any cabinet you can think of." Again, the craftsmanship is top-notch - as the various pieces that make a cabinet come together, the joints are absolutely perfect. Once the carcass is assembled, the chamfered softwood pieces that give traditional Matamp cabs their unique look are cut, mitred and nailed into place, followed by supports for backs and speaker baffles. Corners are radiused and slots are cut for the decorative stringing and then the completed cabinet is sanded smooth and inspected prior to being taken upstairs for covering. Watching this done by hand is fascinating - Matamp cabs have a lot of detail work that makes for a real challenge to cover neatly. "Everyone has their own method for covering" explained Jeff "There's no right or wrong way - you just find one that works best for you. We have a glueing machine for production work, but we do one-offs by hand as it takes ages to prime the machine and clean it afterwards." The fabric is cut to size on a long table, and then a special formula EVA glue is applied with a roller. The cabinet is placed on top and the material is laid over it one side at a time - a blunt scraper tool is used to remove air bubbles, and also acts as a straight edge for cutting in corners. A hot-air gun controls the adhesive, letting the craftsman speed up or slow down the setting time - this is vital for achieving sharp edges on corners. With the vinyl applied, the cab gets another inspection before the stringing is fitted. This purely decorative item is pushed into a groove machined into the cabinet - in all; it takes about forty minutes to cover a 4x12. With the grille cloth stapled into place the baffle is fitted, followed by corners and handles - then the loudspeakers are bolted in and wired up. Again Matamp offer a choice of driver, and several sample cabs to play through.

Finally, amp and cab meet for the first time and the customer can plug in to see if it comes up to expectation - final tone tweaks are made, and then everyone gets to stand back and admire the finished product. "We try to get the amp absolutely right before it leaves us" said Dave " Occasionally a customer will call us a few weeks later and ask for a minor change - it's no problem for us to do that, and we'll rework it until it's exactly what the customer wants." Buying a Matamp is totally different from buying any other amplifier, and we enjoyed the experience immensely - John Firth, Mat's right-hand man in the glory years and now Matamp's archivist summed it up: "If there's one reason for this little company surviving against the odds for over fifty years, then it has to be because Matamp started as a group of friends who loved music and electronics and supported every customer 110 per cent. That's just as true today as it always was".

When we heard that Matamp had launched a new custom order service, we were tempted enough to try it for ourselves and here's the result - a Type V28 head with matching slope-front 2x12 cab. Let's deal with the styling first: we couldn't resist this burgundy covering - it's an authentic 1950's fabric called Rexine, which was typically used to cover valve radiograms and car dashboards. Bit by bit, various accessories were set against it to arrive at a combination that hopefully looks opulent but not ostentatious - incidentally, it smells just as fabulous as it looks! The finished effect is one of eye-grabbing classic retro from every angle, evoking the interiors of classic British sports cars from Matamp's heyday - you can just imagine this trim inside an old Triumph or a Jensen-Healey. Check the details: the corners and handles are hand-polished and 9-carat gold plated, while that flawless engraved control panel is from the same supplier Matamp has used since 1958.

Underneath the vinyl, both the head sleeve and 2x12 cabinet are built with 18mm birch ply, and as we saw it happen in front of our eyes we can tell you the construction is absolutely perfect - no gaps or glue drips anywhere. The chassis is anti-magnetic stainless steel, chosen for its non-interference with the transformers - these are multi-layer hi-fi types and like all Matamp components rated for considerably more power than they'll ever handle. Inside, there's a lot of very neat handwiring centred on four turret track tm. boards which have PCB tracks in their bases - this patent-applied-for concept blends PCB repeatability with point-to-point reliability, and makes the finished circuit a delight to behold. All the components are good quality - conductive film sealed pots, gold jack sockets and special ceramic valve bases are just some of the highlights here. "Amp manufacturing is always a compromise to some extent" explained Dave, Matamp's design engineer: "Because we currently sell direct we can use better components and still charge less than many mass-produced designs, but it's horses for courses - in our standard amp range a filter cap will cost around three or four pounds compared to the one or two pounds spent on a mass-produced item. That's enough to get a higher operating temperature component with a much longer working life and we think it's worth the extra. If someone wants the very best and they're prepared to pay for it, then the sky's the limit - some of the madder things we've done include built-in cigar lighters, a 500 watt head with sixteen EL34's and audiophile grade amps with hand wound silver wire transformers and satellite grade filter caps which last virtually forever. Those can cost as much as £9,000 or more, but for gigging musicians value for money is always our prime concern."

Back in the real world, the more affordable V28 still delivers enough boutique clout to hold up against the world's best. The single channel preamp has controls for gain, master volume, presence and reverb with a passive three band EQ that's enhanced by a six-position voice switch - this acts like the old Gibson Vari-tone control, progressively adding more bass and gain into the sound for a quick preset to match any pickup, from the muddiest high output humbuckers to the brightest of low output single coils. On the rear panel, loudspeaker and reverb footswitch connections are handled by gold jack sockets, with a Pentode/triode switch to halve the output and adjustment points for comprehensive bias control. The V28's ace in the hole is its maverick output stage, which uses 6V6's as standard but can run any combination of 6V6, 6L6 or EL34 power valves. The standard GZ34 rectifier valve can also be replaced with a plug-in solid state module that alters the response and adds a little more power - maximum output is around 45 watts using a quartet of 6L6's, while at the other end of the scale you can unplug one, two or even three valves without causing any harm to the output transformer. "At the low voltages this circuit runs, there's no impedance sensitivity" Dave explained: "and the transformers are massively over-rated so they won't come to any harm."

SOUNDS
Plugged in and warmed up, the V28 is easy to dial in for a great sound - the best starting point is to set the tone controls around halfway and pick an option from the voice switch before fine-tuning things. The preamp is low to medium gain, with a wide clean and slightly overdriven range that tops out with a respectable Tweed Fender-style crunch - this relatively low gain is deliberate, because the real fun starts when you turn up the master volume. At around halfway, the power stage starts to clip and compress resulting in tones, which are nothing short of monumental. With a quartet of 6V6's installed and gain and master volume set at roughly three quarters, sustain is almost infinite and any note can be coaxed into feedback - this is where that low gain preamp pays dividends as you can blend it with the power stage for the best effect while the character of the guitar always remains intact. It's a dynamite mix of vintage Tweed Fender and Vox with superb definition at all frequencies: throaty mids with lows as fat or as tight as you need, while the highs can go from ultra sharp to sweet and rounded. The master volume also incorporates a defeat switch - taking it out ads more top and still more gain if needed. Despite the modest output level there's plenty of volume too, thanks to the Celestion Vintage 30-powered 2x12, which can be used in open or closed back mode for yet more variety. Back off on the guitar's volume control, and your sound cleans up for a rich balanced warmth with the hi-fi sparkle that Matamps are renowned for - played clean, this is one of the sweetest guitar tones you'll ever hear.

VERDICT and VFM
It's difficult to judge something without bias when we've played a small part in completing it - this is one of Matamp's more purist designs and players used to driving an amp from the guitar will reap the most benefit. For build and sound, it equals or betters the likes of Dumble, Cesar Diaz or Top Hat, and guitarists who work the middle ground between jazz, blues, country and rock will find it unbelievably versatile, with a signature tone that stands out from the crowd. If it's not quite right to begin with, having it set up just the way you want is part of Matamp's service for any customer, and any feature you want can be added if you're prepared to pay for it. As for the price - you'd be forgiven for thinking this was going to be another expensive dream amp review, however because Matamp currently sell direct you could buy this incredible rig (or any of their other designs) for less than half what you might pay in a shop - and that's simply unbelievable value for money. Whatever your taste and whatever you play, there's a Matamp waiting to be made for you - and if you're lucky it won't cost you a penny, as Matamp are celebrating their new service by giving you the chance to win your own custom amplifier in our competition. It's good to see one of our oldest and most respected names back where they belong and with amps, prices and customer service like this they're going to be hard to beat for a very long time.

Matamp R28 half-stack Guitarist Verdict 4.5
Matamp R28 Head results
Build Quality 5 X X X X X
Features 4.5 X X X X x
Sound 5 X X X X X
Value for money 5 X X X X X
WE LIKED: Few companies would dare to let you watch your own amp being made, and none can give you this quality at the price.
WE DISLIKED: A decent owner's manual was the only thing missing from the package, but that's all.

MATAMP SPECIFICATIONS:
MANUFACTURER ORIGIN: UK
TYPE: All valve single channel head with valve reverb and valve rectifier.
OUTPUT: Nominal 28 watts with 6V6 power valves as standard.
VALVES: 3 ECC83, 1 EL84, 4 6V6, 1 GZ34
DIMENSIONS: 650 (w) x 240mm (d) x 240mm (h)
WEIGHT: (Kg/lb): 18/39

CABINET: 18mm ply
LOUDSPEAKERS: Matching 2x12 slope-front cab fitted with 2 Celestion Vintage 30
CHANNELS: One
CONTROLS: Six-way voice switch, gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, reverb, master volume.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Pentode/Triode switch, reverb footswitch, DC filament supply, external bias control, master volume defeat switch, ability to run on EL34, 6V6 or 6L6 valves in any combination, max power up to 45 watts with plug-in solid state rectifier module.
OPTIONS: Head or Combo or any other option you're prepared to pay for.
Choice of cabinets: 2X12 and 4X12 or any other option you're prepared to pay for.
RANGE OPTIONS: Matamp's standard range includes single and dual channel preamps with power stages ranging from 20 to 160 watts, and a range of cabs and drivers as well as a choice of covering fabrics. Typical order time is approx 4weeks.
CONTACT: USA Orders MATAMP Dist., USA - WWW.MATAMP.COM - handmade@matamp.com 509-455-7469

Written by Nick Guppy [originally printed in GUITARIST MAGAZINE Issue No. 235 March 2003]
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